Restoration Shaman Pre-Patch Guide for WotLK Classic

Restoration Shamans continue to do good area healing in the Wrath of the Lich King pre-patch with Chain Heal, and gain more single-target healing from the new Tidal Waves passive, as well as some of the new glyphs, such as Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave.

While less Shamans are needed per raid due to Bloodlust and buff totems such as Wrath of Air Totem being raid-wide in Wrath, these two in particular are still unique Shaman buffs, and Strength of Earth Totem is the best Str/Agi buff if you have Enhancing Totems.

This page will go over pre-patch talents, rotation, gear, and consumables for Restoration Shaman, allowing you to quickly get up to date with your character while waiting for Wrath to officially start!

This talent tree takes all Healing Wave talents to make it an efficient heal, alongside maxed out Enhancing Totems. You should swap the three points of this talent into Ancestral Knowledge if you already have another Shaman with it talented on your raid.

If you absolutely dislike using Healing Wave (which is an excellent spell when used properly), removing the Healing Wave talents and using only Lesser Healing Wave for single-target healing can be a simpler, if worse, option.

Glyphs enhance or change class specific abilities, and you can have up to two major glyphs and three minor glyphs at Level 70, with a third major glyph being unlocked at Level 80.

Many glyphs will only be available after Wrath launches, so in the pre-patch Restoration Shaman should use Glyph of Earth Shield and one of Glyph of Earthliving Weapon (AoE) or Glyph of Lesser Healing Wave (ST) as major glyphs.

For minor glyphs, Glyph of Water Shield and any of Glyph of Water Breathing, Glyph of Renewed Life, and Glyph of Water Walking work as quality of life options.

1. Spell Power;
2. Haste;
3. Mp5;
4. Critical Strike;
5. Intellect.

Healers do not have a formal rotation. As such we will display a priority list, instead.

As Restoration, you should always use Earthliving Weapon on your weapon.

1. Use Nature's Swiftness, Tidal Force, and Healing Wave as an emergency heal for players about to die;
2. Use Lesser Healing Wave for emergency healing if Nature's Swiftness is on cooldown;
3. Remove dangerous debuffs from group members as soon as possible. This includes preparing for Fear effects with Tremor Totem;
4. Keep Earth Shield on the tank and Water Shield on yourself at all times;
5. Keep your Totems active and in range of the raid at all times;
6. Use Riptide when available;
7. Use Chain Heal to heal group damage, consuming a Riptide buff if available and the damage warrants it for extra healing;
8. Use Healing Wave to heal single-target damage.

Most TBC Phase 5 gear in the guide linked below is still among the best gear available, but due to both Spell Healing and Spell Damage becoming a single stat, you will now be able to use any Spell Power gear you find without Hit on it to great effect. The short encounters of the pre-patch also favor the raw throughput of Haste and Critical Strike rather than the sustain of Mp5.

• Most Sunwell Plateau gear is good enough to enter early Wrath raids with, especially Erupting Epaulets and Cowl of Gul'dan (for non-Engineers), which are pre-raid best in slot items;
• To complement raiding, or if it is not an option, farming Honor in the pre-patch through battlegrounds will allow you to buy the full "Brutal" PvP gear set, which is close in power to gear from Sunwell Plateau and has no randomness in its acquisition.

Enchants mostly stay the same in the pre-patch but, due to the Spell Healing and Spell Damage merge, you can now use the old Spell Damage enchants as well as they will typically give the same Spell Power as an old Spell Healing enchant would.

Adept's Elixir plus Elixir of Draenic Wisdom are the recommended elixirs for Restoration. You can eat any of Golden Fish Sticks, Blackened Basilisk, Poached Bluefish, or Crunchy Serpent.

Weapon oils are no longer used in the pre-patch: you should be using Earthliving Weapon, instead.

Haste Potion is the best Healing throughput potion, although you can also use Super Mana Potion if you have Mana issues. You can no longer use two potions during combat, but you can use a Haste Potion just before entering combat, which will allow you to use another potion mid-fight if the encounter is long enough.